INDIA FIELD FOUR SPINNERS: ONE-OFF OR NEW STRATEGY?

IN the pre-match press conference ahead of the first Test between India and South Africa, Shubman Gill was answering a question answered by as many as four previous Test captains (permanent or stand-in). Kuldeep Yadav’s place in the Test XI.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @Kolkata

Kuldeep Yadav (R) celebrates a wicket with KL Rahul

(SAYANTAN GHOSH)

Would he? Won't he? Gill let it slip that the management were weighing options. It would either be the extra spinner or an extra all-rounder. It remains one of Indian cricket's blindspots that there still appears a question mark around one of cricket's sui generis in terms of uniqueness and talents.

A left-arm wristspinner is a unicorn in itself. A left-arm wristspinner with his control is an outlier, a dot in the top right-hand corner if you were to plot his skill sets in relation to other active red-ball spinners in the world today.